A year and a half after their outstanding fight that ended in an anticlimactic illegal knee, Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier ran it back in Calgary.
Both hoping to get UFC Championship opportunities despite a likely returning Conor McGregor, the two were pegged for the main event on a loaded show. As it turns out, this fight saw Eddie Alvarez warned for another illegal shot in the form of a 12-to-6 elbow that would cost him the bout.
The second round strike would cause the action to be stood up from referee Marc Goddard. This gave Poirier the room he needed to send Alvarez into the cage with a flurry of punches, elbows and knees that would end the fight.
You can see an excerpt of our Fightful.com live coverage of UFC Calgary below.
Round Two: The round begins with Alvarez immediately swinging away at Poirier, Alvarez cracks Poirier with a spinning back fist. Alvarez trips up a kicking Poirier before swinging away at him, Poirier goes for a jump guillotine choke and Alvarez escapes to get top position on the ground. Poirier wall walks to his feet and Alvarez holds him against the cage wall, the fighters separate and Poirier goes for another jump guillotine choke. Alvarez escapes and gets top position on the ground again, Alvarez transitions to back control against Poirier. Alvarez gains full mount after a few neck crank attempts, Poirier gets to a seated position with Alvarez on top of him, the referee halts the fight after Alvarez throws an illegal elbow strike. The action resumes with Poirier rocking Alvarez with a knee strike followed by a wild punching combination, Poirier absolutely destroys Alvarez by throwing everything besides the kitchen sink and the referee finally stops the fight after Alvarez goes down.
Official Result: #4 Dustin Poirier def. #3 Eddie Alvarez by TKO via strikes (4:05, R2)
Poirier now has one loss in his nine fights at lightweight, and has racked up his third win in a row over a former UFC/WSOF world champion in the division.
You can see Fightful's playlist of UFC Calgary interviews at this link.